29th Exploit: Sarah Leoni & The Crooked Cop Blues 1

Despite his initial suspicions, Antonio hears out Ardy, and listens to the tale of Sarah's time as an officer through the perspective of her old cop partner

29th Exploit: Sarah Leoni & The Crooked Cop Blues Pt.1

Several minutes pass. Antonio, Clarice and Jason are seated  in front of Ardy. Jace is in between Antonio and Clarice, preferring to stand. Ardy clicks his tongue as Antonio finishes speaking.

"So, that's pretty much the long and short of it." Tony finishes sternly. "Whether you want to believe she was pushed off the tower or fell off doesn't matter, I'm absolutely positive that prick had her shoved off." Antonio lowers his head. "If I knew Sarah was going to become a target I woulda never even considered going to that damn speech rally." Ardy is silent for just a moment.

"...You're sure her fall was foul play?" Ardy lets out a 'tsk' as Antonio lifts his head back up. "Don't that beat all. I was hoping she'd escape this kind of crap after she was transferred from the NNPD to the Tai Corporation, but chalk that up to naivety." Ardy sighs. "Guess the saying goes as is, if you've got a grip on the society you've got corruption running through your veins."

"Hmm." Antonio looks over at Sarah and grimaces. "Guess you've gotta go through some form of bullshit just to make it in this world." Tony's eyes shift back to Ardy. "So, how about you? Ive told you my connection with Sarah, we still have no clue who the hell you are. How can we trust you? What is Sarah to you anyways, and if your boss is so crooked why in the world are you still working with him?" Ardy laughs, clicking his tongue after he finishes.

"Gotta make a living somehow pal! Not everyone is competent or talented enough to make a name for themselves. Hell I worked pretty hard and Ive only managed to be good enough for policing." Ardy clicks his tongue. "You have to be kind of either lucky or special to make it into the Tai Corp, or into a higher government position. I know I'll never make it that far, but I'll be damned if I'm working some lame civilian gig." Ardy shrugs. "Besides, just because corruption runs wild in the NNPD doesn't mean there are honest good hearted people who are legit trying to keep the streets clean." Jason chuckles bitterly.

"Sure." Ardy looks over at Jason. "You pigs did a bang up job at Rose Mali Park." Ardy flashes a glare at Jason, but in the end ignores the jab and turns back to Antonio.

"And as for Sarah-" Ardy sighs. "-Well, I guess I'll tell you everything."

"Everything?" Antonio crosses his arms.

"Yeah. From the day I met her to the day she stormed out of Chief Blubars office defeated. Seeing as you're one of her best friends you deserve to know her police life."

~~~

Over Two and a Half Years Ago

It is two months after Sarah's gotten her Rio certification from Luke Dragone. She is standing among a group of other's in a standard issue workout uniform inside what looks to be a meeting area. The light blue room has all the chairs next to the two walls on the lefts and rights of these people. They're all looking toward an elevated part of the room, with a desk and some intense looking fellow behind it. They're all standing at attention. They are each on their first day as recruits for the NNPD. The door behind them opens and Ardy runs in sweating. His standard issue grey tank top is on backward. Ardy clicks his tongue as he tries to sneak into line between Sarah and someone else. A loud 'snap' echoes in the room and the intense looking fellow behind the desk points a silver riding crop at Ardy.

"Name." The intimidating officer bellows. Ardy holds in a wimper.

"Ardy Dortanni, sir!" The riding crop whips to the end of the line at the left, two spots from where Sarah's standing.

"There. Two feet from Mr. Crovit."  Ardy hurries and stands immediately at attention once he gets to the position. The officer eyes the tag hanging out of the collar of Ardy's shirt and grumbles. "Mr. Dortanni, you'll do well to wake up at a more convenient time for all of us next time, yes?"

"O-Of course sir!" Ardy clicks his tongue.

"Also, it's perhaps wise to make sure you have your shirt on right." Ardy curiously looks at his shirt as the officer smirks. Ardy is flushed and embarrassed. "It's a little late to fret about it now, just keep this in consideration next time. Now-" The officer  slaps his silver riding crop onto his hand and steps from behind the desk. "With that nonsense done, welcome, all, to the NNPD headquarters. I am the head of the department. Chief Maudli Blubar."

Blubar smirks. Hes a rather average sized individual, but no less intimidating, with a face that has rugged lines and a rather tough looking chin. His nose is wide and his ice blue eyes are paralyzing. He's indeed wearing a uniform benefiting of someone in such a high officer rank as Chief. Dark blue with yellow trim lines down the sides and middle where the uniform is buttoned. His pants are dark blue, and he has several decorations on his right chest. His hat is indicative of a man in his position, standing pointed and proud, almost like a crown, dark blue like his pants and his badge set upon it.

"If you're standing here today it means you've passed various screening tests, as well as have had an agreeable evaluation, interview, and hold some kind of credentials that indicate you can handle this line of work. Today is your first day as an NNPD officer, for the first several months you'll be partnered with someone in this room and share their schedule. You two will be responsible for each other, and any differences that arise ought to be dealt with professionally. There will be no partner transfers for the first six months." Blubar's smirk fades. 

"Look to your left." Everyone turns their head left except Ardy, who turns his head right first. He quickly snaps his head left and begins to sweat." Mr. Dortanni-" Ardy bites his lip. "-Are you some kind of attention seeker, or are you truly so dumb that you don't know right from left?" Blubar smirks as a couple of the new recruits laugh. "Any case, I truly feel remorse for your partner. Now, the first, second, fifth, sixth, ninth, tenth, thirteenth and fourteenth, look two spots from where you are standing. That man or woman is now your partner."

"Mr. Dortanni-" Ardy gulps. "For you, since you are at the end of the line, that would mean dear Miss Leoni would be your patrolling partner, understand?" Sarah cringes, but keeps her mouth shut. "I imagine the rest of you can count. Now, face me." Everyone does so. "Remember, there may be a day where your partner could be the difference between life and death. Today, your job is to get to know your partner, his or her strengths, weaknesses, ways to cover those weaknesses, and so on. For the first several weeks you and your partner will be paired with a veteran officer. You're all dismissed." The group stands at ease as Blubar turns his back on the cadets, but not before giving Ardy a side glare of disgust.

---

A day has passed. Both Ardy and Sarah have an official NNPD uniform. They're being driven around St. Costas in a standard NNPD Borard. The driver is an officer in his early 30s, rather average looking fellow with brown hair. This is Sargent Don Craviti. Ardy, who is sitting in the back, clicks his tongue and whines restlessly.

"Jeez, when are we gonna arrest someone? This is getting boring."

"Can it rookie." The veteran grumbles. "The key is looking to solve issues, not feeding some status quo. "Its obvious by Don's tone he absolutely doesn't believe what hes saying. Sarah points at an 8 -13 Square Q gas station, where several people are arguing.

"Are you speaking of problems like that, Mr. Craviti sir?" Don looks over at where Sarah is pointing as one of the five arguers pulls out a gun and starts yelling louder.

"Woah!" The vet immediately stops the car and gets on the radio. "We have a  N-02 on Filik Street, in front of the 8 - 13 Square Q. I repeat-" Sarah jumps out of the cop car and immediately starts running in the direction of the group. "HEY!!" The gun wielder notices the approaching officer and turns himself toward Sarahs direction.

"Stop right now b***h! This is-" Sarah launches herself forward fiercely, kicking the ground behind her with her fighting spirit and slams her knuckles into the armed mans rib cage*.  He gasps and releases his gun. Sarah quickly grabs his wrist before he can drop to his knees and cuffs him flawlessly.

"You're under arrest bub!" Sarah cuffs the mans other hand and forces him to stand. Ardy and Don approach. The veteran looks as impressed as he does displeased.

"Do you realize how many protocols you just utterly disregarded?!"

"My apologies sir, but I feel like the situation called for urgent and immediate response."

"Hmm, but perhaps, did you consider that the man drew in self defense, or that one of these others could have been an accomplice?"

"Absolutely. As you can see I'm facing the other four."

"And the fellow behind you?" Sarah gasps as she whips her head around. There's a bystander overlooking the action. He takes a step back and nervously waves his hands innocently.

"Uhm, h-hi?!" The vet pats Sarah on the shoulder.

"Always mind your surrounding, young lady. I really shouldn't overlook this but I'll do so just this once. We'll still have to speak with Blubar though." Don smiles. "I was honestly impressed at how swift you were. I'll go ahead and question this group, you read this fellow his rights."

---

Don, Sarah, and Ardy sit in front of Chief Blubar's desk. Blubar is on the other side. He has a rather spotless office, one that speaks for how proud he is and his accomplishments. A personal trophy case rests on the left wall, and a silver wing rifle behind him. Blubar raises his eyebrows. "Oh, is that so?" Chief Blubar turns his head from Don and toward Sarah. As his eyes briefly pass over Ardy, who sits in the middle, he sneers in disgust. His sneer disappears as he looks at Sarah arrogantly. "And not only did you let Miss Leoni go, but you refused to write her up over it? Sargent Craviti, I'm at a loss of words."

"...Sir." Chief Blubar sighs.

"Miss Leoni, you ought to learn a thing about self control." Blubar smirks. "Your senior officer here is letting it go 'just this once', and since he seems to hold you in relatively high regard I'll go ahead and respect his decision, 'just this once', however-" Blubar turns back to Don. "Mr. Craviti, you'll be under laundry duty all next week, along with your rookie subordinates." Blubar cracks a smile as Sarah looks over at Ardy concerned. Ardy just clicks his tongue again. "You are expected to keep up your procedure while holding this duty, of course." Don looks upset, but doesn't speak up against his superior. Chief Blubar waves off Sarah and Ardy. You two are dismissed."

"Sir!" Both stand. Sarah wastes no effort to about face and walk out. Ardy nervously starts to walk away from the Chief and Sargent. He hears the two begin to speak as he closes the door.

"That girl-" Blubar speaks. "-do you think she'll be of any use for our friends in the future, or-" Ardy lets the door finish closing, not wanting to draw any more unwanted attention.

---

Sarah and Ardy are now in the lounge. Its not that big, holding two center tables, a place to make coffee and wash your hands, a small microwave and a fridge. The lounge is rather dirty looking as well, seeing little love from maintenance. Sarah is writing notes on how to be a better law enforcer as Ardy is just resting. One of their fellow peers walks up to them and smiles.

"Yo, newbie!" Sarah looks up and smiles. "Heard ya went and got your first arrest today! On your first day out too, congrats!"

"Ah, well, yeah..." Sarah's smile fades a tiny bit. "I almost got it for breaking protocol." Sarah taps the back of her pen on the table. "Now we're stuck with laundry duty apparently."

"That it? Your superior must like you, usually that's worth worse, but yeah either way that prick was looking to get shot. You did him a favor and got him non-fatally." The cop smirks. "Ya know, he's an activist right? Jean DeMabby." Sarah raises a brow.

"Activist?"

"Yeah, this ain't his first time getting on the wrong side of the law. The idiot protests for Bolzen Kafer rights." The cop sneers. "As if they deserve rights, they're just an experiment from some bygone era, let them stay in camps I say, or hell round 'em all up and dispose of em."

"Hey." Ardy clicks his tongue as he stares daggers through his fellow officer. "They don't go out of their way to harm anyone. Their ancestors allowed the experiments to change them, and it carried over. I say let 'em live, they aren't harming anyone."

"What?!" The officer almost laughs. "You do realize if they ever actually knew what kind of power they had they could do a lot of harm, and I'm telling ya that'll happen if we don't keep those nasty lightning roaches in check!"

"That's a pretty s****y outlook, my friend." Ardy leans forward. His gaze doesn't change. "Maybe you ought to try on their shoes and then-" The cop grabs Ardy by the collar and lifts him out of his chair. "-H-hey!"

"Walk in their nasty shoes?! F**k that!" The cop nudges his head into Ardys. "Kafer loving p*****s like you don't belong in the force,  what I REALLY ought to do-"

"You ought to release my partner right the hell now before I do something about it." The cop can feel Sarah's aura as she stands. He can't quite perceive it but he senses danger. One of the other officers who can see her fist, surrounded by fighting spirit, nudges the cop holding Ardy.

"Hey man I'd let the kid go." Sarah's eye twitches.

"And now." The cop 'tsks' and releases Ardy's shirt. Ardy falls back into his chair and clicks his tongue nervously.

"Have it your way, hot shot." The cop grumbles. "You and that brain dead fool better keep in line. We don't need no bleeding hearts stinking up the department!"

"I'm here to protect and serve, regardless of who is breaking the law!" The cop grumbles something under his breath before turning and walking away. Sarah sits down with a sigh.

"Man, what an a*****e." Ardy clicks his tongue. "All bark, no bite-" Sarah punches Ardy in the shoulder. "Ow, hey!"

"Don't instigate more drama, stupid!"

Author's Note

*Rio Rocket - Sarah's is a pinch different from Antonios, using a little more finesse while approaching the intended target.

Silver Wing Rifle - A prize rifle won in a contest between the NNPD and ENPD baseball teams. Its accuracy is rather poor, but its price is quite high.

---

Chief Maudli Blubar - 6'0, 232, 58